Alan Peat AFTER REPEATED complaints from private sector bodies that the deadline for submissions on the intended rewrite of the Customs & Excise Act was too soon, customs has extended the deadline date. On July 4 customs called for submissions to be lodged by August 19, but this was condemned by the forwarding industry as “insufficient notice to be able to comment constructively on such a complex issue as the C&E Act”. Customs has now offered a second opportunity for comments by extending the deadline for preliminary submissions to August 31. The authorities also appear to have taken note of one of the first submissions tendered - that there was a need to meet with customs in open forums to discuss the Act. Input The procedure, according to information from Deloitte & Touche, is that input from members and bodies in the trade and freight industries is to be forwarded to relevant working groups in customs operating under the headings of: tariff; ad valorem and excise; rebates, refunds and drawbacks; litigation and law enforcement; and control areas (places of entry, warehouses, depots, rebate stores, and the like). The information compiled by the working groups is then to be assimilated into a single discussion paper. This, in turn, will be circulated to “external stakeholders” and followed by a workshop to discuss the various issues. “This is encouraging,” a board member of one of the freight sector’s bodies told FTW. “At least customs has talked about having talks on the subject of the C&E Act. “But it is a complex web of legislation, and any amendments have to be done with due care and consideration because they will dictate the future success or failure of SA’s trade efforts.” Customs’ viewpoint, FTW was told, is that it would like as many viewpoints as possible to include in the preparatory work. This, it was added, to ensure that the workshop discussions are as productive as possible.
